VEDDAHS PEOPLE

The Veddahs “Hunters” also called the “People of the Forest”, are the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka. Like so many other indigenous groups, the Veddahs people on the verge of extinction. Each wave of migration seized more land, leaving the Veddahs with less forest on which to subsist. Today their numbers are highly disputed, with estimates ranging from 200 to thousands. Only a small and quickly diminishing number of people identify themselves as Veddah and retain a semblance of their old culture, which emphasized a hunting lifestyle with close relationships to nature and their ancestors. They don’t have schools, all survival skills is passed by older generations of “Forest People”